-
Elden Ring: Every couple of years an open world game comes by that completely consumes all of my gaming time for a couple of months, this time it was Elden Ring. While Bloodborne remains my favorite Souls like this was pretty close. Over the years I learned that a sense of discovery is an important aspect I enjoy about games, this has that in spades. It’s also effectively a move away from making every RPG just about numbers, some sort of sickness that games have inherited from MMO’s. The world is filled with items that let you play in all sorts of different ways.
-
Grounded: I didn’t expect this to hit the way that it did. I’m someone who likes the allure of crafting games but hardly ever gets on with them. Subnautica was one I loved but most modern ones like Valheim didn’t do it for me. Grounded was such a refreshing and polished experience though. The perspective of being tiny in a human world felt very immersive. It’s challenging game that gives you a real sense of achievement enriched by the fact that I got to play this weekly with a group of friends.
-
Poinpy: Wouldn’t have thought I would list a mobile game published by Netflix but here we are. Poinpy is an arcade game with some pretty fresh mechanisms, a butter smooth feeling, and a finely tuned progression mechanism.
-
Taiji: It’s the Witness but without a lot of stuff I frankly liked about the Witness. The ‘aha’ moments feel less incredible but the puzzle design is still very good in the sense that things feel impossible for a bit and then click all of the sudden.
-
OlliOlli World: This is a game I haven’t played enough to list here in good conscience, but looking back at things I played this year, I think it deserves this spot the most. I tried a few “extreme sports” games over the last two years but this is the one I like best by far. It has a great style that sets it apart and a gameplay system that is easy to learn but leaves a lot of room for improving if you want to up your score.
Games I played this year but were released in previous years that might have made the list otherwise: Wide Ocean Big Jacket, Hitman 3.
Games I didn’t make time for but I think might have had a chance at being on this list: Pentiment, As Dusk Falls, Last Call BBS, Roadwarden, The Case of the Golden Idol, Card Shark and Shotgun King.